New cases of Legionnaires' appear unrelated to hospital outbreak

Published 7:00 pm, Thursday, June 29, 2006

Two new cases of Legionnaires' disease, one of which resulted in death, do not appear to be tied to a recent outbreak at a local hospital, a health official said.

An ongoing investigation indicates the cases are among those acquired in the community and not related to 10 cases of the pneumonia connected to North Central Baptist Hospital, said Fernando Guerra, director of the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District.

It's been about 2 1/2 weeks since the last of the 10 hospital-related cases was reported, Guerra said.

Of the two new cases of Legionnaires', a 70-year-old woman who also had heart disease died this week and a 48-year-old man is being treated for it, Guerra said.

The two bring the total number of local cases confirmed this year to 13. Five of those resulted in deaths.

Legionella bacteria is found naturally in the environment and healthy people usually aren't at risk of developing the disease, which tends to strike older people with weakened immune systems.

Investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that Legionella bacteria was in North Central Baptist's hot water system. To prevent further outbreak, the hospital has superheated its water system repeatedly to kill any Legionella in the water and flushed chlorine through its pipes.

Guerra said the health district will wait up to 10 more days to declare the outbreak "well-contained."